Plugged In

Back in 2018, at Google’s I/O conference, I attended a session on the concept of Artificial General Intelligence—AI algorithms that could demonstrate humanlike fluency at all sorts of reasoning tasks, not just those it had been specifically trained to perform. Sitting in the back of a packed audience, my mind was suitably boggled at the prospect. And it would have been more boggled still if I knew that less than six years later, reasonable people would be debating whether AGI was imminent. Or maybe even already here. …

In case you haven’t seen them yet, four Fast Company tech stories worth your time:Of all the transfixing, unsettling moments in the short history of generative AI as we know it, few have topped OpenAI’s unveiling of Sora last week. The company’s first tool for producing videos based on written prompts, it’s still a research project, available only to a team assessing its potential dangers and selected creative professionals. The clips OpenAI and others have shared are all under a minute and silent. But what they prove…

First up, four fresh Fast Company tech stories for you:A year ago, the era of generative AI chatbots was new, and sitting around with your mouth agape was a perfectly understandable reaction. OpenAI’s ChatGPT was amazing! In some ways, Bing Chat—which drizzled Microsoft special sauce on the same large language model as ChatGPT—was even more amazing! As for Google’s Bard . . . well, it was slightly less amazing than ChatGPT and Bing. But given Google’s formidable AI chops, there was every reason to think it might catch up…

First, four Fast Company tech stories you may not have seen yet:“Apple just announced its first major product since 2014: The Vision Pro for $3,499”—CNBC“The headset starts at $3,499 and marks the company’s biggest product launch since the original iPhone went on sale in 2007.”—Reuters“Apple’s biggest new product since the iPhone . . .”—Business InsiderWhen Tim Cook was still settling into his job as Apple CEO, a tiresome meme ran rampant. Cook, the pundits carped, was failing as Steve Jobs’s successor. And the proof was…

You’re reading Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech update, which means I must be global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or you’re reading it on FastCompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Wednesday morning. My inbox awaits your feedback and ideas for future newsletters: Send them to me at [email protected] few Fast Company tech stories that may have escaped your attention:When I realized that this newsletter…

Let’s start with four Fast Company tech stories you might not have seen yet:Last week, OpenAI unveiled the GPT Store. It’s a service, built into ChatGPT Plus, that lets you find and use custom versions of ChatGPT created by . . . well, anyone. And they can do anything that GPT-4 can do, including generating DALL-E images and interfacing with third-party services via plugins.OpenAI calls these user-created chatbots “GPTs.” The ones it’s currently highlighting convey the breadth of what’s possible: There are bots for…

Welcome back to Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech newsletter. I’m global technology editor Harry McCracken, and I’m filing this edition from a surprisingly comfy armchair in a hallway at the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas, the most peaceful spot I found to do some writing during CES. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or you’re reading it on FastCompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Wednesday morning. Your feedback and ideas are always appreciated: Send them…

Happy New Year to you—and thank you for reading Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech newsletter. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or you’re reading it on FastCompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Wednesday morning. Your feedback and ideas are one of the best parts of writing this newsletter: Send them to me at [email protected] few Fast Company technology stories you may not have read yet:If we’re going to make New Year’s resolutions, few…

As usual, I have a few Fast Company technology stories to recommend:The moment Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter became official, on October 27, 2022, he began trashing his new toy. And for millions of Twitterphiles, the downsides of a social network controlled by a single erratic billionaire became obvious.But well before Musk plunked down his $44 million, people who’d thought deeply about social networking and its role in society were concerned about Twitter’s centralization. Among them was the company’s cofounder, Jack…

Let me begin as usual by calling a few Fast Company tech stories to your attention:On November 27, news broke that Sports Illustrated had stomped on one of the biggest rakes in journalism. As reported by Futurism’s Maggie Harrison, the venerable sports media brand—now managed by a company called Arena Group—had been publishing articles written by imaginary people with AI-generated head shots. Furthermore, a source at SI told Futurism that at least some of the stories had been generated by AI.After Futurism noticed the…